Understanding the cause of equipment failure

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jan 9, 2006

EA Technology is expanding the scope of investigating electrical assets failures to owners and operators outside the power industry, both in the UK and abroad.

EA Technology is expanding the scope of investigating electrical assets failures to owners and operators outside the power industry, both in the UK and abroad.

The UK power engineering company has extended the service to meet growing demand for forensic investigations into the causes of failure in MV and HV electrical equipment, including switchgear, transformers, cables and overhead lines.

Such failures are often sudden and catastrophic, resulting in major production losses, consequential damage and possible injury to personnel.

"Understanding the cause of equipment failure is essential, lessons learnt from these investigations will reduce the occurrence of expensive and dangerous failures and ultimately lead to an increase in the safety and reliability of assets", said Anne McIntosh, Lead Consultant at EA Technology.

"The importance of forensic investigations is well established in the power industry, but there is increasing awareness of its value among other companies in the industrialised sector which operate their own electricity assets, particularly in the processing and manufacturing sectors".

"Demand is being driven by concerns about corporate responsibility for health and safety, as well as commercial interests".

EA Technology's failure investigation team has recently identified why a large number of contactor switches newly fitted in one of Europe's largest paper mills failed.

The failures caused repeated shut down of the production line for up to four hours each time.

EA Technology's forensic laboratory at Capenhurst, near Chester, used a scanning electron microscope to identify a 40um defect in a contact spring which resulted in a fatigue failure.

The cause was traced to a manufacturing fault and the supplier replaced all of the contactors free of charge.

The client stated: "We were able to prevent further failures, rectify the problem and regain confidence in the operational reliability of the equipment through the identification of the root cause of the problem".

In another success, investigators established the cause of the catastrophic failure and explosion of a 3.3kV circuit breaker in a large petrochemical refinery.

Investigations by EA Technology revealed the sequence of events leading to the explosion, which was triggered by arcing across damaged contacts.

The arcing was shown to be caused by vibration, resulting from where the equipment was positioned.

The operator was advised to check all similar units.

EA Technology has also completed its report on the causes of the fire which cut electrical power in Bermuda on 14th July 2005.

Described by BELCO Chief Executive Gary Madeiros as "a catastrophic failure - the worst case scenario", the explosion cut power to all 62,000 resident of the island.

Damage to equipment is estimated at $10 million and repairs are expected to take up to 18 months to complete.

McIntosh added: "Establishing the full reasons for a failure often involves detective work at the site of the incident, in addition to forensic laboratory tests".

"We have to consider a wide range of causes and contributory factors, including design, materials selection, fabrication and processing, operating and service conditions, human error, vandalism and illegal activity".

"Failures which were once regarded as unfortunate accidents are increasingly classed as preventable incidents".

EA Technology's team of failure investigators are available for deployment anywhere in the world.